No Finer Place Than Charleston With My Magnolias

Charleston With My Magnolias For Jules’ Girl’s Weekend

 

Back at it again… this time with my favorite ladies in my favorite southern town!  Now, if I haven’t mentioned before I moved to Charlotte from Charleston, SC so every time I go back there it is going “home”.  I also moved to Charlotte in part due to these ladies in this photo: Sharon, me, Niki and Jules.  Beside me living here, Jules’ is getting married here and this city is where I met Niki, which snowballed in to meeting these other two fabulous ladies.  Needless to say Charleston is an extremely special city to all of us.  There is a reason that Charleston wins best city in the US year after year {I’m not saying it’s because of us but it seems like quite a coincidence hahaha I kid I kid}.  If you have not been… GO!

The beautiful brunette on the right is getting hitched this month and against what we wanted, she didn’t care for a “bachelorette” party, she just wanted a girls weekend with us lucky ladies.  Weekend in Charleston with my Magnolias? TWIST. MY. ARM.

Now a little tid bit…  These ladies in the pic call ourselves the magnolias because between all of us we hit every character in Steel Magnolias.  Those ladies have been life-long, through thick and thin, friends and they each have their own little southern sass.  While we have all met in the past ten years we have been through weddings, births, death, break-ups, medical issues, moving cities and everything in between.  These are the ladies that I make my first phone call to as soon as anything good or bad happens in my life.  They never judge, they know my good days and bad days and they love me just the same.  They are the ladies that I am happiest with sitting on my front porch drinking wine and laughing at everything and nothing.  They are my magnolias.

We started the weekend with three of us driving to Charleston together to meet the lovely bride-to-be {that in and of itself is always an adventure}.  Check-in at the Francis Marion and time for some wine!! If there is one thing my girls and I know how to do… it is to drink some wine and bubbly! Time to get all fancied up and head to Jules’ event planner’s 30th birthday {did you follow that?}. Mr Luke Wilson “the wedding planner of Charleston” {seriously check out his site it’s redic! Luke Wilson Events} just happened to be turning 30 the same weekend we were there so naturally we crashed his big event. OH MY GAAHHH! We cabbed it about 20 minutes outside of downtown to Daniel Island Country Club where we entered, well basically, we entered a wedding reception… His name was in lights behind the most amazing band I’ve heard and the decor was insane. Free flowing bubbly, wine and drinks and a cake that would make some brides jealous. Well helllllllo start to our weekend, nice to see you!

Dancing the night away at Luke’s 30th

We finally grabbed a drink, stepped outside while waiting on our cab, kicked our heels off, enjoyed the mini chicken sandwiches & parmesan garlic fries they were bringing around and made new friends of course. WHAT. A. NIGHT.  Time to head back to the hotel put on pjs and drink some more wine.

Day 2: Today was portrait day for Miss Jules.  We woke up early and went to eat at Rarebit… delish!  Over the past 5 years they have completely redone upper King St and there are some of the coolest restaurants and bars to go to.  I have been to most places to eat in Chas but Rarebit was one I had not been to yet.  It was the perfect breakfast spot but their dinner menu looked amazing as well.  We refueled, my dad popped in to say hi {he lives downtown Chas} and then it was off for the trial run of hair and make up.  We dropped Jules at Stuart Lawrence Salon  while we snuck off and set up the room with some “bachelorette” goodies {did you really think we were going to let her get away without bachelorette stuff? Paaalease}.  We grabbed the bubbly and headed back to Stuart Lawrence to see the master piece. If you are in Charleston and need your hair done, GO SEE BUTCH. He was absolutely amazing!! Sorry can’t post pics because the final product is a surprise for the wedding day.  Off to get the bridal portraits taken at Boone Hall plantation.  If you don’t know about Boone Hall, get with it!  Just messing… it is where Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got married, the Notebook was filmed here and it is just breathtakingly beautiful.  The weather was perfect, the rain held off and the photographer got some of the most beautiful shots {easy to do because Jules is one of the most photogenic people on the planet, seriously it makes you not want to like her but you can’t because she’s just so damn nice}.

That night we did the usual bachelorette games of “what did Matty answer” {her fiance} while we drank wine and champagne and then got ready for dinner.  Back down upper King to Macintosh for a late dinner.  Now, I have been to Macintosh a few times and I swear the food gets better every time I go there.  We had the front long table that looked out to the street so we could people watch while we ate and gabbed.  Sharon and I got a light white fish dish and it was seasoned and cooked perfectly.  Jules’ ordered the pork chop and loved it!  Lame, I know, but we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel after our dinner.

Day 3: I was actually super excited about and dreading day 3 from the start of the weekend.  Super excited because I made reservations at Husk, the number one new restaurant in the US for 2011 and dreading saying until next time.  Now if you plan to go to Charleston this MUST go on your restaurant list but be warned you have to have a reservation.  I made one while I was in NYC the weekend before eating lunch with Jules during my “guys weekend”. Husk is in a typical Charleston house and the menu is just divine!! Take your time, go through the menu and enjoy the ambiance if you go here.  It was the perfect quaint spot to sip a mimosa with the girls and recap the weekend, what still needed to be done for the wedding, Sharon’s little chunky monkey {Tyler} at home and any other daily gab we had.  I was sad to be saying until next time but I’ll be seeing these ladies so very soon for Jules’ big day.

Husk for our last gab session for the weekend

It was time to drop the bride-to-be at the airport then me, Niki and Sharon were headed back to Charlotte.  Now I have one week ahead of me then it was off for surgery to get my tonsils removed and a callus removed from my vocal cords.  Needless to say I was getting in as much talking as possible before I got sliced up. More on this later.

Until next time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy

Let’s catch up to speed… A crazy 2013 in review

So I’ve mostly blogged a couple of recipes & a few fashion blogs.  A whole world of experiences have taken place in between those blogs.  Now let’s see how short I can keep this.

This year has turned out to be THE year of travel & weddings, both of which I LOVE! I started out in NYC with two of my best friends (one of which lives there so we take full advantage of visiting her when we can).  May had me traveling all across the east coast & most weekends I wasn’t sure which dress I was suppose to be wearing.  The first weekend of May I hosted my Alzheimer’s fundraiser BVB (Blondes vs Brunettes~ a powder-puff football game) before heading off for my wedding tour of 2013.

Now the east coast travel begins … First stop, Pawley’s Island to be MOH in my best friend’s wedding.  Cakes & I have known each other since we were 13 and it was such an honor to stand beside her as she married her one and only {Mr Cuddles as she refers to him in her blog~http://khoehmen.blogspot.com/  }  It was BEAUTIFUL!

Two of my oldest friends, Kort and Channy at Katie Cakes wedding

So great to see all of my oldest friends from elementary school, middle school & HS.  I missed my 10 yr reunion because I was in Charlotte opening my store so I got to see everybody I wanted to this weekend & the wedding the following weekend.   After the brunch on Sunday I drove down to Charleston to see my dad & relax for a night;  This was also due to a broken phone & I only knew how to drive to Charleston from Pawley’s & not the back woods way I came from Charlotte (details details).  Then Monday back to the Queen City (Charlotte) for just a few days before jumping back in the car and heading to Atlanta (exhausted yet?)

Off to ATL… home sweet home.  It was great to see my momma & spend some time there, then it was time to see my best guy friend since I was 1 1/2 get hitched to the cutest girl! Now, as mentioned earlier, this was also the second half of the “high school” reunion I missed, it was like none of us skipped a beat.  Two weeks, two weddings with childhood friends and endless laughs and stories.

Me & the handsome groom Jojo. From playing together in diapers to watching him walk down the aisle.. it has been a hell of a ride

Sunday it was a little R & R with momma then back to the Queen City again for just a few days.  Side note: Do you see why I don’t know what I am suppose to be wearing or where to have my mail forwarded?  Woaza….. I digress. Next stop on the tour, putting my MOH tiara back on & headed to Pinehurst, NC.

Now this is the grand finale for the wedding tour (for the first part of the year) & we sure did go out with a BANG! I truly could do a full bio on each wedding & all of the shenanigans but I will cliff note each and spare you.

This wedding has been 10 years in the making.  This is where my best friend, my unbiological sister & other half gets married!!  Niki & Kyle have been together for 10 years but have known each other since they were like 5ish.  This is the laid back southern couple that knows how to throw down…. i.e. the groomsmen cleared a couple of mason jars of shine the day of the wedding…

Please take note of the groomsmen hahaha

I knew going into it I would be an emotional mess but man I even surprised myself with the tears.  I got to stand beside my best friend AND one of my best guy friends as they said “I Do”.  We drank, we danced & truly just celebrated.

The beautiful Niki & KB

Me & KB (the groom) He knew he was getting a second wife when he said I Do to Niki

Sunday I dragged myself to the car and finally headed back to the Queen City to get my life back together get back to my “normal” routine.

I had a nice little breather before flying the friendly skies to my next destination.  Keeping with my birthday tradition of fleeing town, it was off to DC for a late bday celebration & to celebrate the 4th (you can’t get any more American than celebrating the 4th in DC by the way).  I closed the store for half the week because of the holiday & headed to see my sissy & best friend (Cakes from the first wedding mentioned) & Kort (pictured in first wedding pic) met us there as well.  We did everything American you could think of… Nationals baseball game, cookout, shop & watch the fireworks on a rooftop.  It was perfect!

Rooftop on the Hill, fireworks & good friends

Have I lost any and everybody that was reading this?  Long-winded much?! I promise the following ones will be one “event coverage” at a time but wanted to get up to speed for 2013.  I’m off to pack my bags again.  NYC next week to celebrate one of my favorite people being born  🙂 then Charleston the following weekend to celebrate my beautiful friend Jules’ upcoming nuptials.  Until next time….

A